Paes, Sania enter Indian Wells doubles quarters

Indian Wells: Australian Open winners Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek saw off a stiff resistance from Juan Monaco and Kei Nishikori to advance to the quarter-finals of the ATP Indian Wells Masters on Tuesday.

The seventh-seeded Indo-Czech pair scored a tough 7-6(5), 6-4 win in the second round over their unseeded opponents.

They will now fight it out with the giant-killing Spanish pair of Marc Lopez and Rafael Nadal for a place in the last-four.

Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek and Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina won their second-round matches with much effort.

Lopez and Nadal had knocked out third seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in their opening-round match.

Earlier, the Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna suffered a first-round exit in the USD 4,694,969 hard court event. They lost to the French pair of Julien Benneteau and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Meanwhile, Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina moved into quarter-finals of the WTA event after scoring a hard-fought win over Timea Bacsinszky and Alberta Brianti.

The second seeds dominated the proceedings in the beginning but lost the second set before winning the second-round match 6-1, 3-6, 10-2.

They will next face the Argentine pair of Gisela Dulko and Paola Suarez in the last-eight stage match.

Sania had exited the singles event after losing her second-round match against Anabel Medina Garrigues.

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